Heads up, this is not a knitting related post and it does have a bit of cussing so if you don't want to listen to my political rant with cussing then please ignore this post. I'll be back in a day or two with a knitting related post.
Opinions are definitely welcome even those that are different then mine but if you're going to attack me for my opinion or are trolling for a fight I will delete your comment. A good healthy discussion or debate is always welcome. I don't believe that I'm always right and have no problem admitting when someone has an idea that is better then mine.
I generally shy away from political or religion filled posts on my blog. Politics and religion are big fight starters. Sammy Kershaw has a song called Politics, Religion and Her which sums it up with him saying "politics can start a fight, religions hard to know whos right." Well that's how I feel too but this topic is one of those that is driving me bat shit crazy lately. It's came about full tilt when Shawn came home yesterday stating that we could possibly not see our next paycheck because of it. You see military will be exempt from a government shutdown but the section that pays military members their paychecks is ran by government civilians who will not be at work to make sure we get paid if there is a government shutdown. Sadly the military still have to go to work. All those troops who are in Iraq and Afghanistan will still have to work only now their risking their necks and not getting paid for it. Same goes for my VA disability check. The VA and their pay system are all ran by government civilians. Listen up bill people, if the government doesn't get me my paycheck you will not be getting paid either. Car payment and insurance for said car will be paid but that's it. Cell phones, cable and credit card companies, sorry but you aren't not going to see a dime till I see my check. If a government shutdown happens the commissary will be closed because the commissary on base is ran by federal employees. Is this a tragedy for me, no it's not but it is the cheapest place for me to shop and if I'm not getting a paycheck I have to make my savings count. Thankfully I have money tucked away in a savings account and we're not stationed at a base that is not close to a town. Yup that's right there are some bases that are pretty far from town. Unfortunately I can name a lot of military families who are going to be in a world of hurt if they don't get their checks because they don't have savings and are living paycheck to paycheck. Some of these families are lucky if they have $20 to their name when their next check comes in.
Sorry folks, hate to burst your bubble but the military aren't paid all that well. Yes we have some decent benefits like free housing (some bases you have to wait 12-18 months for said free house), rent money if you live downtown (this is only about 75-80% of the actual rent costs not including utility costs you don't get money for that), free medical and vision and food money (only a few hundred dollars a month) which is paid only for the military member not their families. No extra money if you have a family since the military didn't issue you a family you don't get paid for said family. Although housing money for living downtown is a little higher for military members with family. My husband makes less then $40,000 a year doing a job that in the civilian world would give him around $65,000 a year starting pay and roughly $85,000 per year after he gets his masters degree. He's serving his country not for the pay and benefits but because he wants to. I think the last thing he got down from the military stated that with all his benefits he's got a $54,000 a year job. Most of the benefits that they count are bunk and it's a way of trying to make it sound like we're getting paid better then we really are. But back to the topic at hand. I can get sidetracked way to easily.
There's big fuss about a government shutdown because Congress are being a bunch of big damn babies about the budget. I sincerely hope that this doesn't happen but frankly I have no faith left in my government. Do I think the budget is important, hell yes I do! Do I think the government needs to shutdown because these babies can't make up their minds and compromise, hell no. All American tax payers are affected by the budget. We all pay taxes to keep government functions running although in the last ten years I have to say I've become less and less impress with the way our government is being ran. It's never been perfect and no one expects it to be perfect. You can't make everyone happy all the time. For those tea party people who think the government shutting down for a few months is a good thing I have one thing to say to you "up yours". Yes it's a rather juvenile response but I think it works. There are a lot of us "government employees" that need our damn paychecks to survive in this world. What about all those veterans who will not receive proper health care or their paycheck because they are ran by government employees in a VA hospital? Or the elderly who are receiving Social Security checks or use Medicare? Don't you think they'll be hurt by a long shutdown? I know for a fact that it would cripple my grandmother who uses both of those things. Thankfully my gran has family and we stick together and take care of each other when things get bad. Not all elderly have families that are there to give them a helping hand. Not to mention the fact that shutting down the government will not solve the problem. It's just away of ignoring the problem. Problems aren't solved by ignoring them. I believe a government shutdown will cause even more problems.
Congress are a bunch of overpaid cry babies who are acting like a bunch of two year olds fighting over a frickin' toy. Come on people you are grown individuals who need to learn how to compromise. Republicans think they're right and Democrats think they're right. Well you can't always be right folks and sometimes you need to compromise. I'd have to say they're both wrong because they're not working together to solve the problem. It shouldn't matter what you're damn political leanings are. You do what's best for the people as a whole. Stop your bickering and think about the people who voted your butt into office and take care of them.
You want to know what my political leaning are? They're for keeping this damn country from falling apart. For making sure that our own homeless people are being taken care of. I understand helping third world countries who need help is important but damn it stop ignoring our own people who need to be feed and taken care of. Not all of our homeless people are worthless druggies and drunks. Some of them are families that lost their homes because they were laid off from work because some large company decided that they could make a bigger profit by moving their company to China. Lets face it it's not easy to find a job right now. Some states still have a fairly high unemployment rate.
I'm for our children getting a good educated and lets face it our education system sucks because we keep taking money away from it. We have states that keep pulling more and more money from education. Education needs to be funded better and teachers need to be paid more. They have a damn difficult job to do and it's getting harder to do that job when we don't give them the things that they desperately need. When I was a kid my parents hardly had to supply anything for us kids. On average we spend $20-30 at the beginning of the school year for Kaity. This will double since Bree starts school this Aug. This doesn't count the money we spend on supplies to help out the teacher throughout the year. We never complain about paying for these supplies because our kids need them but when the schools start cutting music and art programs from their curriculum you can bet we'll be at the head of the line screaming about it.
We need to find a way to move away from oil dependancy and tell the big oil companies that they won't run our country anymore because lets face it they do control a lot of things. And frankly overuse of oil is causing a lot of environmental issues both from using and from drilling for it.
I'm for not taxing the crap out of the little people who actually do run this country. Do we need taxes? Yes, yes we do. Tax money makes the world go round and money in general runs the world. It helps fund all those government agencies that we use, social security, medicare, road repair, our national parks, etc. Lets stop and think about what would happen if the janitors, retail works, mechanics, teachers, etc weren't around to do their jobs. The little people run this country not the Bill Gates and Donald Trumps of the world. Did they or do they play an important part in our country, yes they did/do but they're not more important then any other American in this country. I'm for not allowing the extremely rich to not pay the taxes that they should be paying because they found some stupid loop hole in the system.
I'm for no American having to go without medical care because they don't have medical insurance or doing without medicine because it's so horribly expensive they can't afford it. I would be doing without my meds if I didn't have medical insurance. My meds each month would be well over $500 every 30 days. I read somewhere where it stated that over 1 million Americans are purchasing their medicine from Canadian companies because it's a lot cheaper. Why is it that these same medications can be obtained from Canada cheaper then here in the US? Some of my meds have no generic brand to help me save money. The price for medicine in this country is absolutely ridiculous. Our medical system is ran by the pharmaceutical companies and it shouldn't be. If that means that we have a health care program like Canada's then so be it. I think Canada has the right idea of it. Is their program perfect? No it's not but at least they are trying to take care of their people. No one should have to go without proper medical, dental, or eye care. If you've ever had to do without it then you understand. There are a lot of people who have never suffered without these things and do not understand. It's hard to understand something if you've never experienced it. Just because you can't afford to pay for medical insurance it does not make you lazy or worthless. It doesn't mean you spend your money on stupid things. Some people are scraping by paycheck to paycheck because the cost of living is to damn high. Is Obamas health care reform perfect? No it isn't. It needs a lot of work but at least he isn't sitting back doing nothing. He's trying and I can't fault him for that. It's easy to stand around and point fingers at people who make mistakes it's a lot harder to try to fix the issues instead of point fingers and laying blame.
I'm for welfare, WIC and food stamp reform. There are people who are receiving these things when they shouldn't. I think the programs can really help a lot of people out unfortunately they're being neglected and are in serious need of a revamping.
There are a lot of changes this country needs to make but how can we make them when our leaders squabble like 2 year olds? What people need to understand is that while our President is the high leader of our country, Congress is the one that controls the show the majority of the time and lets face it they've given the world a great show of what childish jackass they really can be.
Alright, political rant over with. Now it's time to sit back and see how many people stop reading this blog because of this post. ;~)
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